A month after Donald Trump’s first announcements on ” economic independenceFrom the United States and the taxes applied to products imported into the country, uncertainty persists in the strategy deployed by the American president and his administration. A 10 % floor customs right was established on all imports, to which were added personalized rates, depending on the globe country or territories.
Since then, and in particular because scholarships around the world have particularly reacted to initial decisions, Donald Trump has returned back, modifying certain rates, by suspending others … “” The big difference since the election of Donald Trump and now is the chaotic and unpredictable way that the administration has set up customs tariffs», Note François Vigneault, marketing manager of the Quebec publishing house Pow Pow, with theComics Journal.
His observations synthesize the state of mind of a sector which no longer really knows where to give head: ” The problem (beyond having to increase selling prices) is due to the fact that we do not know what the future has in store for us. »
The book, really out of danger?
Several reasons for concern persist, with book professionals, since the announcements of Donald Trump in early April. The documents communicated by the White House suggest that the publications would be exempt from additional customs duties.
As such, this exception granted for the book – whether it is a novel, a comic book or a manga – is not a largeness of the Trump administration. As the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund association recalls, engaged in the defense of the freedom of expression of the authors of comics, this measure is inherent at the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), the federal law on which Trump was based for his customs tariffs.
The IEEPA has provided for this exemption in order to protect access to information from Americans, guaranteed by the first amendment to the Constitution: the President could not, thanks to this provision, impose prohibitive customs duties to limit access to certain publications on American territory.
Despite this safety measure with regard to books, nothing is won for publishing professionals. Indeed, a certain number of American publishers have relocated the impression of their works abroad, while Canadian and Quebec publishing houses, for their part, bring in certain titles of the United States. In printing works, across the Atlantic, we are also afraid of raw materials or more expensive mechanical parts, because imported and not necessarily exempt from customs duties.
Authoritarian power and purchasing power
In addition to the ideological attacks of the Trump administration, which relentlessly targets the speeches of social criticism or the expression of certain minorities, in particular ethnic or sexual, an economic front opens, for the actors of the book.
Indeed, the 2026 budget draft presented by Donald Trump provides for the closure of several agencies turned to authors, translators and publishers, such as the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The disappearances of these entities would mean the end of many subsidies, which improve access to the culture of disadvantaged populations, support the dissemination of works or facilitate the expression of marginalized voices.
-Several publishing houses have already received letters informing them of the cancellation of their subsidies on May 31, as reportedPublishers Weekly . A few months earlier, the Trump administration had imposed new rules on the NEA, reserving its aid for artistic projects which do not include “activities relating to diversity, equity and inclusion ».
To read – In the United States, Trump wants to annihilate public aid to creation
In an uncertain economic context, where prices are likely to evolve, the weakening of public support for creation threatens a whole ecosystem, across the Atlantic. The booksellers, on both sides of the American-Canadian border, are worried about the predictable reluctance of customers. “”The margins in the book trade are very low, and the prices are artificially lowered thanks to the demand“Recalls John Degen, director of the Writers’ Union of Canada, with theEdmonton Journal.
« Any disturbance threatens this delicate financial balance, and could lead to bookstore closings, independent Canadian publishing houses which put the key under the door, authors without work and fewer and fewer books for CanadiansHe continues. A chain that would also apply to the American market.
The mistakes of Donald Trump’s customs policy have consequences: in supermarkets in the United States, consumers anticipate or already observe price increases, as reportedLibérationA few weeks ago. “”I never spent as much in a supermarket as well as it is so expensive“, Takenate a thirty -something, social worker.
This Wednesday, April 30, the United States Ministry of Commerce said that GDP of the United States fell 0.3 % in the first quarter of 2025, a drop that Donald Trump quickly attributed to his predecessor Joe Biden.
Photography : illustration, ShellyS, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
By Antoine Oury
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